NALC study tour researches Bishop’s Stortford transport project

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has today sent a best practice delegation to discover how Bishop’s Stortford Town Council Hertfordshire is improving community transport for adult social care services.

The delegation of 25 people from larger councils in England had exclusive behind the scenes access to Bishop Stortford’s councillors, officers and sites. They also got the chance to visit:

• Bishop’s Stortford Town Council’s fleet of community buses (they rode on them and heard how these buses are used to support adult social care in the town); 
• One of the Town Council’s diverse community centres (and how the town council uses the income from the community centres to plough back into community services);
• The Tourist Information Centre (and how this service generates income for the town);
• Parks and opens spaces managed by the town council and the subject of a joint lottery-funded project with the District Council (and how this contributes to adult social care in the town);
• Some of the town council’s 10 allotment sites (and how they contribute to health and wellbeing in the town); and 
• Some of the newly re-built public conveniences in the town (contributing to local economic development and health and wellbeing).  

This was an excellent chance to highlight the great work from Bishop Stortford’s council while sharing with other councils innovative ways to provide for their communities.

Councillor Paul Harvey, Chairman of the NALC Larger Councils’ Committee said ‘the visit was a real eye-opener and our delegation learnt just what can be achieved by a well-managed; well resourced; ambitious local council.  We were hugely impressed by the array of services offered by Bishop’s Stortford Town Council and how they are providing much needed front line services to support adult social care in their area.’

Councillor Norma Symonds, Mayor of Bishop’s Stortford said ‘we were very honoured to receive the delegation from the National Association of Local Councils and were pleased to be able to show them all that the town council is doing for Bishop’s Stortford.  It is always nice to learn that what you are doing is being recognised and appreciated by others.”

Carina Helmn, Chief Officer at the Hertfordshire Association of Parish and Town Councils, said “the larger council study visit has been taking place at NALC for around 15 years.  It is great that it has finally come to Hertfordshire.  The local association was proud to be part of the visit and would recommend to any super council that it hosts a study visit or similar event in the future.”